The present invention relates to a subcaliber discarding sabot projectile. More particularly the present invention relates to subcaliber, spin stabilized, discarding sabot projectile in which the discardable sabot, which completely encloses the projectile body, includes a base portion and a hood portion connected to the base portion, and with the hood portion being provided with a plurality of grooves as desired break locations which extend in the longitudinal direction of the projectile on the circumferential surface of the hood portion and along which the propelling cage tears open after firing and after the projectile has left the gun muzzle, with the projectile body initiating the release process for the individual propelling cage segments.
Such a discarding sabot projectile is disclosed, for example, in FIG. 1 of published European patent application No. 0,051,375 A2, published May 12th, 1982. In such a discarding sabot projectile arrangement, the weight of the discarding sabot should be as low as possible and the ammunition should have a high hit probability while having the lowest possible manufacturing price.
In the disclosed discarding sabot projectile, when the discarding sabot segments are released from the projectile body after leaving the gun muzzle, the centrifugal forces occurring at the tip of the discarding sabot hood are only slight due to the tip being in the vicinity of the longitudinal axis of the projectile (spin axis), and consequently the release of the propelling cage segments, i.e. the hood segments, begins at the tail of the projectile body. Thus the process of releasing the propelling cage segments from the projectile body occurs relatively slowly. The propelling cage segments, which are still connected in the center at the front or tip of the sabot hood, are decelerated considerably and interfere with the free flight of the subcaliber projectile until the propelling cage segments have also torn apart at the tip of the hood. This causes the development of relatively strong interfering influences, resulting in pendulum effects on the projectile body, oblique landings (oblique hits in the target) and great hitting inaccuracies.